Category: - MORE THAN A GAME

Suddenly it looks like Germany all the way

23/5/2012

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Winning a Euro tournament is as much about luck and state of mind as it is about having the best squad. Just ask Denmark and Greece. Suddenly, reigning world and European champions Spain are no longer looking like favourites for Euro 2012 after it was confirmed that they will be without both Carlos Puyel and super striker David Villa.

Surely the clever money will now shift to Germany who will be packing one hell of a punch at Euro 2012 with messrs. Ozil, Muller, Klose, Podolski and Schweinsteiger. And no, we haven't forgotten about the not-insignificant power and skill of one of the best Dutch squads we've seen in many a year.

More Than a Game's earlier thoughts that Croatia might spring a surprise seem more unlikely now by the day.

Today's the day for Euro tickets

16/3/2012

Friday, March 16, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of football fans will receive emails today telling them whether they have been successful in applying for tickets for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

UEFA has been busy allocating tickets to each of the 14 non-host federations' fans and while the number of england supporters applying for England-only-matches is said to be less than the official supply, it is reported that around 12,000 Irish fans have applied for each of their group matches where their official allocation is just 6,000 tickets.

UEFA.com says that it recieved more than 12 million ticket applications when Euro 2012 tickets first went on sale in March 2011

Euro 2012 health scare

14/3/2012

Photo (c) Steven Depolo

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Ukrainian Health Authority is advising foreign football fans to think about getting vaccinated against measles ahead of the Euro 2012 tournament. Cases of measles have been on the rise since 2010, with over 1,000 cases said to have been reported over the past 12 months.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Tikhonenko has advised foreign visitors to be covered for measles, rubella and tuberculosis.

Many in Ukraine blame the current epidemic on a batch of botched vaccinations in 2009 with at least one death - that of a 17 year old boy in the Donetsk region - blamed on poisonous vaccinations.

Let the tipping commence

13/3/2012

Giovanni Trapattoni is keeping his bets close to his chest
Photo (c) Ingo Stöldt

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

There has been a sudden outbreak of Euro tipping by a number of international football managers with just three months to go until the start of Euro 2012. Spain's Del Bosque, perhaps keen to deflect attention away from talk about Spain retaining their Euro crown, believes Germany and Holland are the most likely challengers for Euro glory, with France and Portugal quoted as being his outside bets.

The wise young man of world football management, Slaven Bilic, says Spain are the 'overwhelming favourites' and that he is sure they will overcome the huge pressure being placed upon them as world and European champions.

Meanwhile, Ireland's Italian coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, clearly isn't a betting man as he predicted this week that 'any team could win Euro 2012':
"It is not easy to play against great players but I have studied them on DVD and I know what is possible to do. They have many great players but in my life I learned in football that in 90 minutes that anything is possible,"

Anonymous threatens Euro sponsors

12/3/2012

Monday, March 12, 2012

Online activists Anonymous have threatened to target the sponsors of Euro 2012 over what it calls the intentional massacre of stray dogs in Ukraine in the lead up to this summer's European Championships. Be warned! This video contains graphic scenes of dog mutilation

UEFA warns of hotel rip offs in Ukraine

9/3/2012

Friday, March 9, 2012

The Daily Telegraph reports that UEFA has warned Ukrainian authorities that some hotel prices in Ukraine are threatening to put off many foreign football fans from travelling to the country for Euro 2012.

As we have reported on More Than a Game previously, a number of hotels in Ukraine are charging exorbitant prices for stays during Euro 2012, and this is having a detrimental effect on the number of fans planning to travel to the football tournament.

While there are many hotel, camp site and hostel owners charging fair and normal prices in Ukraine, some unscrupulous hotel chains and individual hotels are attempting to sell rooms at prices sometimes ten times their normal rate.

The Daily Telegraph quotes an example of the IBIS hotel in Kiev which is reportedly charging £550 on the night of the England v Sweden match instead of the standard £49 rate.

The English FA has confirmed that is has been unable to sell its allocation of tickets to its members for England's group matches; the first time this has happened for a European championships since the England members club was formed. Many are putting this down to the stories of extortionate prices in Ukraine.

More Than a Game was contacted recently by R H van der Lubben from the Dutch-managed 'Oranjecamp 2012'. He told us that the company currently still has over 10,000 spaces, at normal prices, at its sites in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kiev. For more information: www.oranjecamp2012.nl

As we advised last month, anybody planning to travel to Ukraine should shop around and be patient as there are plenty of accommodation options available at competitive prices

Thousands of English banned from Ukraine

8/3/2012

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The British Home Office has announced that around 2,500 Englishmen have been given banning orders ahead of Euro 2012. Any individual with a ban will have to hand over his passport and will not be allowed to leave the UK between May 29 and July 1.

Up until the UEFA 2000 European Championships English fans were known for their fearsome reputation abroad but this image has changed significantly during the past few tournaments, beginning at FIFA 2002 in Japan, where English fans were very well received.

English fans were voted the 'fans of the tournament' at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, while four years later in South Africa, not a single English fan was arrested for violent disorder of any kind.

Injuries give Joachim Loew Germany headache

21/2/2012

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Germany's manager Joachim Loew may be forced to call up a number of relatively unknown players for Germany's upcoming friendly with France on February 29. The German side, who are many pundits' favourites to win Euro 2012, have been hit by a string of high profile injuries recently, which threaten Loew's plans for Poland and Ukraine.

Germany face France in Bremen on February 29 in one of their final preparation matches before Euro 2012 gets under way on June 8. The current high profile injury list does not read well with key men out including Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, Mario Goetze and Per Mertesacker. Arsenal's Mertesacker is likely to miss Germany's Group B showdowns with Denmark, Holland and Portugal after damaging ankle ligaments that could rule him out of action until the summer.

After facing France, Germany will also play friendlies against Switzerland in Basle on May 26 and against Israel on June 1 in Liepzig.

Ukrainian stereotypes

20/2/2012

Monday, February 20, 2011

Stereotypes are hard to break. Ask somebody who has never been to England what London is like and they may well tell you that everybody is polite, wears a bowler hat, calls home from a red telephone box and drinks a dozen cups of tea per day. And what are the stereotypes of Ukraine? All Ukrainians drink vodka. The women are all blond. The men are all muscular. And it is very cold there...
For this very reason it is often necessary to bring in the PR boys and girls to shake up the perceptions of others. These are the latest promo clips that aim at creating a rather more upbeat and positive image of this beautiful country:

UEFA ticket window shuts for some fans

16/2/2012

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Yesterday was the final day for the fans of some of the teams involved in Euro 2012 to buy tickets for the tournament from UEFA.com. A special ticket portal was launched late last year specifically for fans from the 16 participating teams. While fans of a number of federations have until February 29 to register their interest in tickets for their teams, English fans, for example, had to purchase tickets by midnight on February 15.

The English Football Association said yesterday: "As it currently stands, we are confident that we will have enough tickets to satisfy demand for all of our matches."

It is expected that around 85% of the 1.4 million tickets available for Euro 2012 will go to fans with the remaining 15% going to sponsors, VIP guests and the like. Officially, each team has the opportunity to receive 16% of the overall net stadium capacity at each venue.